Hajime and the Idol
by Mr.legoman
Summary: Hajime discovers an upcoming Idol on the internet which helps to change his view on the world. A crossover with Ai the Somnium Files


"Hey Hajime, I have a favor to ask of you." Chiaki calmly stated as they played her handhelds. "Hey, Hajime, are you listening?"

"Huh," Hajime said looking up from his game. A second later the death tune played, and Hajime sighed realizing he had let his guard down. "Sorry, Hajime." Chiaki apologized. "I didn't mean to get you killed." Hajime shook himself, then realized Chiaki was still focused on her game. "It's okay," he replied. "What kind of favor?"

"I need your support," Chiaki said still not looking up from her game. Hajime looked over at Chiaki her focus squarely on her game and yet she still was able to talk She was so good at that, playing an intense game while holding a conversation. Hajime knew even if he practiced for the rest of his life, he would never be as good. "Did you hear me, Hajime?"

Hajime shook himself. "Sorry, yes I did, but what kind of support do you mean?"

"Well, I'm going to be doing a charity livestream tonight," Chiaki explained. "I'm a bit nervous and could use all the support I can get."

"But you're an Ultimate," Hajime stated. "You can't get nervous." Chiaki let out a small, nice-sounding chuckle. "I'm still human, Hajime. I can get nervous."

"Right," Hajime said rubbing the back of his head. "It's so easy to forget that with you being an Ultimate and all."

This time, Chiaki let out a sigh. "Hajime," she said looking up from her game to face him. "Ultimates aren't any better than normal people." Hajime looked into her eyes and could see that extremely serious look, that was usually reserved for her gaming sessions or talking about gaming. Hajime had to look away from that intensity. He looked down at his game which still flashed the game over across the screen. Chiaki got like this whenever the topic of the Ultimates being different from normal people came up. She tried to comfort him with his lack of talent, but she just didn't understand.

Hajime looked back over at Chiaki who was still staring at him, her game forgotten. Hajime could sense Chiaki was about to speak more on the subject so he decided to change the subject. "Hey, Chiaki when and where is this livestream so I can watch it." Chiaki still looked as if she wanted to talk more about Ultimates and talents but she answered his question. "It will be around 10:00 tonight, we will be playing ShovelForge, for the first bit then we will be playing Reckless Skies and our section will last for about 2 hours but you don't have to watch it all just…"She trailed off for a bit searching for the right words. "Just it would mean a lot to know that you're watching."

She smiled that perfect smile of hers and Hajime had to look away again. "I'll watch it. But who else is doing it? Another Ultimate?"

"No," Chiaki said. "She's not an Ultimate, she's just this kind of popular streamer, named A-set. I don't know much about her but I watched a few of her streams and she seemed nice."

"And how did all this come about? I mean how did you get a partnered with a non-ultimate?" Chiaki shrugged. "It's just a charity livestream Miss Chisa suggested I do. I mentioned being a fan of A-set and I luckily got assigned to be her partner." Hajime nodded his curiosity satisfied. "Lucky you," Hajime said as he leaned back on the bench and attempted to relax a bit. Chiaki must have likewise felt the same as she too fell silent. The two watched the fountain, enjoying the comfortable silence between them. After a long moment, Chiaki spoke up. "Well, we still have a bit more time before it gets too late, do you want to go for a few more rounds," Chiaki asked, gesturing toward the game systems. Hajime agreed, he knew he wouldn't last in the intense action of the game but moments like this of just gaming and having fun made life easier to bear. So he happily agreed and the gaming session started again. They were only supposed to play about three more levels of their game but somehow Hajime found himself playing several different rounds, he had lost count on how many.

When he finally looked up, from his game, the sky was changing from orangish-red to a dark blue. "He blinked and rubbed his eyes. "How long we're we gaming?" Chiaki looked up as well and answered. "Longer than we usually do it seems." Chiaki then stood up. "Well I need to get going," she said pointing toward the Ultimate dorms. " Oh, before, I forget, the charity stream will be on youtube," Chiaki added as an afterthought. "And the channel name?" Chiaki then told him the channel name and repeated the basic information that she had already told him.

Hajime nodded and repeated all the information back to her to make sure he had it correct. She smiled again when he got it correct. "Well bye then," Chiaki called as she left toward the dorms. Hajime watched her go, oddly, even though he knew he had tons of work to finish, Hajime did not feel a need to rush out. He gave a smile to Chiaki and waved her goodbye.

He sat there contemplating things for a bit thinking on everything, specifically Chiaki's statement about Ultimates. He knew that she was serious and meant every word that she said, but he could not truly wrap his head around what that meant. Ultimates were the greatest in their field, no one else could compare to them. How could an average person like himself compare to one of them? Eventually, Hajime knew he couldn't just stay and sit forever so he got up and headed toward the reserve course dorms.

Hajime sighed as he continued to work on his mountains of homework. It was already well past the time when he used to go to bed, and from the look of it, he still had hours more work before he could finally sleep. Hajime sighed and closed his eyes for a brief moment to relax his eyes. _Another all-nighter huh_, he thought to himself. Maybe that was his hidden talent, "The Ultimate All-Nighter" or something like that. Hajime shook his head dispelling the thought, staying up all night was not a real talent that could get him into Hope's Peak. He wasn't even that good at it. Hajime let out a sigh that turned into a yawn and he opened his eyes, his brief moment of relaxation was over. If he wanted even a brief moment of sleep, he would need to power through his work.

Hajime glanced at his phone to check the time, to gauge whether there was a chance he would be getting any sleep tonight. It was now 11:15 which puzzled Hajime. Staring at the time Hajime felt as if he were forgetting something rather important. Then through his sleep-addled mind, the answer appeared, Chiaki's livestream. Hajime let out a small curse as the realization hit him. He had already missed most of the livestream and probably would have to miss the rest of it as well. Hajime sighed again. He didn't want to disappoint Chiaki and miss her livestream, but he needed to finish his work without distractions. Chiaki would understand wouldn't she?"

"Sorry Chiaki," Hajime said to his empty dorm room. "I'll watch it some other time," Hajime said this and tried to return to his reserve course work but his mind wouldn't let Chiaki's livestream go. He tried to just power through and completely focus on his work but his mind always returned to Chiaki and her livestream. Hajime sighed, he needed to at least check it out otherwise his mind would just be consumed with the thought of a disappointed Chiaki. Just a few minutes, Hajime promised himself. Then back to work.

So, he grabbed his headphones, plugged them into his phone, and pulled up the livestream. Hajime had never watched any livestream before, so he did not know what to expect. It was rather simple, Chiaki and a pink-haired girl wearing cat-ears accessory, A-set probably, were in the bottom corner of the screen while what Hajime assumed was the game Shovelforge. Hajime watched for a bit, there was something relaxing about the gameplay that put him at ease. After a while, Hajime shook himself, he still had work to finish, so he needed to watch the livestream a bit later. Then a simple thought came to him. Why not both? Hajime felt a bit silly for not thinking of that sooner. An Ultimate would have thought of that sooner. Hajime thought to himself.

With a reminder to how stupid, a non-talent like him could be Hajime then returned to his work, while, listening to the livestream, which mostly consisted of A-set's cheery voice giving commentary to the game, the sound effects from the game itself, and very rarely a simple short statement from Chiaki. As he continued to work that worried him, so he checked the stream again and noticed that Chiaki wasn't her same energetic self. She wasn't energetically describing the game's history or mechanics. She seemed nervous? But that made little sense, Chiaki was an Ultimate, she never got nervous around anything. Well not entirely true, Chiaki did get nervous when non-game related topics were brought up or meeting different people.

Maybe it's just the game, Hajime reasoned maybe her talent doesn't work on multiplayer games. That didn't make sense Hajime knew but he was a loss for what else could explain Chiaki's poor performance and look.

Hajime shook himself, he had his own problems to deal with. Chiaki could handle herself. So with that he turned to his work, and for a brief moment he managed to work on his homework, and only listen to the livestream, awkward as it was, but again intrusive thought continued to plague him. Hajime nearly decided to turn off the livestream and fight through his distracted mind but at that moment A-set spoke up again. "Alright guys we played my game for a long time now, Chiaki what game did you want to play?"

"Oh, uh I guess, Reckless Skies."

A-set gasped. "I've heard that was difficult, I guess that's why you're the Ultimate Gamer right?" Chiaki tried to smile but it turned into a small frown and she looked away from the camera. The game set up changed and it turned into the familiar Reckless Skies start screen. Hajime felt a sense of relief fill him, as the game started. This was Chiaki's game. She had proven time and time again that she was a master at this. There should be no trouble now, she would find her momentum and utterly impress everyone with her gaming skills.

Hajime turned back to his work, content that his friend would handle herself, expertly. Hajime returned to his work, still smiling. He managed to get through a few problems before he heard the death sound effect play two times, assuming it was A-set failing, Hajime didn't look up. However, when the death sounded again and he heard, "Don't worry, Chiaki. We all have our off days," coming from A-set, he had to look back at the stream. Chiaki had already lost two of her lives while the internet idol had her full set of lives and health, and they had not even reached the first boss. Hajime starred at his phone, not comprehending how Chiaki was messing up this badly. "Come on, Chiaki," Hajime muttered to himself. She was so good, it couldn't just be nerves, could it?

"Come on guys, try not to be so negative will ya. Try sending some positive energy in the chat." A-set commented. Comments, Hajime thought. Then he noticed, a notification to view the comment section, clicking that revealed the comments, a small portion was indeed negative. "Ultimate Gamer, more like Ultimate Lamer." Was being repeatedly spammed in the chat. There were other negative comments with more profanity as well. Although, Hajime did notice more positive and encouraging comments as well. I should type something as well, Hajime thought to himself but became discouraged when he also thought, what could some no talent say to inspire an Ultimate as great as Chiaki. He tried racking his brain for anything to say but came up with nothing. So, lacking in motivational words and creativity, Hajime simply put, "Come on Chiaki, you can do it." It couldn't be worse than the uncreative negative comments. As Hajime clicked to submit, when he realized how terrible his user name was, simply being Hinata42, before he could even regret not having a cooler name, his message was posted in the comment section.

Hajime watched the livestream, hoping Chiaki would see his comment, but judging from her reaction, she didn't. She still looked nervous and afraid.

Hajime gave one last look to his homework and sighed. Another all-nighter, he sighed once again and started to spam anything positive, he could into the chat. He didn't really consider what he typed, just positive encouragement or any type of cheer. He continued to do this, hoping Chiaki would at least see one of his comments. She never did, but A-set did. "See, everyone, be like this "Hinata42" they're spreading the positivity, with every word they type. So, thank you Hinata42, for your small but meaningful contribution."

Hajime smiled, at hearing that. Then smiled even more broadly when he saw Chiaki perking up. She sat up straighter and her eyes focused more. Then her gameplay drastically changed. Her avatar seemed to dodge all obstacles on the screen and was blasting the enemies with incredible skill and efficiency. Hajime's smile broadened further when he saw that the negative spam was dying off in the chat as well. Even A-Set paused and continued to watch in stunned silence.

There were few calling him a tryhard for his comments but he ignored them and just continued to watch Chiaki blow away level after level in Reckless Skies. Eventually, Hajime realized that he really needed to get back to his homework. So, he went turned his attention back on his work and listened to the remainder of the livestream as he worked.

Eventually, Chiaki's and A-set's time was up. "Thanks, everyone for donating to the Clione rescue foundation." A-set cheered.

"Thanks for watching and donating, everyone," Chiaki added giving that beautiful smile of hers." The two waved goodbye and the screen slowly faded to a different streamer. Hajime tried watching this one but the voice completely bothered him and Hajime decided to close off the stream. Hajime continued with his work for some time and made good progress on completing his work.

The silence, however, was starting to bug Hajime. It seemed too quiet in the reserve course dorm for his liking. He needed music or some kind of sound. Then an idea came to him, Chiaki had mentioned A-set had other livestreams and videos so maybe that would be what he could watch to fill the quiet out with something. So, he searched up "A-set videos" and clicked the first one he found. "Good evening, good morning, and hello!" greeted A-set cheery voice. Hajime smiled as he worked, listening to the cheery net idol talk about was surprisingly relaxing Hajime thought, all-nighters were always a pain, but this at least made it more tolerable. Hajime continued to work through the night, listening and watching the cheery idol.

Author's Note

Well hello there, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. I have a bit more planned with this story, Hinanami, and Danganronpa in general. But that's going to take some time. Anyhow, have a good day/evening/night.


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